THE  MISTAKES  OF  THE  REBELLION. 


i   NQVSSXilBER  '26tb,  1863, 


REV- Jt-fcEiXANDER  H.  VINTON,  D.B., 

IUWM-ftE'  ST-^irAIlK'S  CHURCH,  IN  THE  BOWERIE,- 


NEW-YORK. 


GEORGE  F.  NFSRJ'Kj^.«v*ClX «.  HKINTERS^A.ND;  STAJIONERS, 

COHWtTtARt  XSp  PISE  STREETS.  „  -  -  •  * 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Dlrst  Old  York  Library 


A  SERMON, 

PREACHED  ON 


NOVEMBER  26th,  1863, 


BY  THE 

REV.  ALEXANDER  H.  VINTON,  D.D., 

RECTOR  OF  ST.  MARK'S  CHURCH,  U  THE  BOWERIE, 
2ste -w---x-o:r.  k:  . 


NEW-YORK: 
GEORGE  F.  NESBITT  k  CO.,  PRINTERS  AND  STATIONERS, 

CORNER  OF  PEARL  AND  PINE  STS. 


1863. 


ERRATA. 
Page  9,  line  7. — For  "  bono#,"  read  horror. 
Page  18,  line  19. — Fpr  "  qui  n  triple,"  rea  l  quintuple. 


* 


New- York,  November  28th,  1863. 

To  the  Eev.  Dr.  Vixtox  : 

Dear  Sir —We,  the  undersigned  members  of  Saint  Mark's 
Church  in  the  Bowery,  having  been  present  at  the  discourse  de- 
livered by  you  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  and  being  deeply  impressed 
with  the  truth  and  value  of  its  sentiments,  and  equally  convinced 
that  its  circulation  would  be  beneficial  to  the  community,  respect- 
fully request  that  you  will  consent  to  its  publication. 

We  are.  dear  sir. 

With  esteem  and  regard, 

Yours,  faithfully, 

CHARLES  E ASTON,  THOMAS  McMULLEN, 

JOHN"  W.  CHANLER,  ALBERT  G.  THORP,  Jr., 

E.  B.  UNDERHILL,  WILLIAM  J.  REMSEN, 
LEWIS  M.  RUTHERFORD,      MEIGS  D.  BENJAMIN, 

E.  B.  WESLEY,  GRANT  THORBURN,  Jr., 
H.  STUYVESANT,  B.  R,  WINTHROP, 

F.  W.  BOARDMAN,  P.  M.  SUYDAM, 

W.  H.  SCOTT,  RUTHERFORD  STUYVESANT. 

P.  C.  SCHUYLER,  ALEX.  T.  STEWART. 


To  Messrs.  Charles  Eastox,  J.  W.  Chaxler,  axd  others  : 

GrBNTLEMEN, — I  am  happy  to  learn  that  you  think  my  Dis- 
course may  be  of  use,  and,  as  you  request  it  for  publication,  I  for- 
ward it  to  you  cheerfully  and  thankfully. 

I  am,  gentlemen, 

Very  truly  and  respectfully  yours, 

ALEXANDER  H.  VINTON. 

St.  Mark's  Rectory,  Dec.  1st,  1863. 


1 

Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

in  2014 

http://archive.org/details/sermonpreachedonOOvint_0 


Judges  5,  11.  . 

"  They  that  are  delivered  from  the  noise  of  the  archers  in  the 
places  of  drawing  water ;  there  shall  they  rehearse  the  righteous 
acts  of  the  Lord  towards  the  inhabitants  of  His  villages  in  Israel 
— then  shall  the  people  of  the  Lord  go  down  to  the  gates." 

This  is  a  part  of  the  triumphal  song  of  Deborah 
and  Barak.  Jabin  the  Canaanitish  king  had  been 
defeated,  and  Sisera,  his  head  captain,  had  died  by 
a  woman's  hand  ;  and  then  the  prophetess  and  the 
warrior  of  Israel  sang  this  psalm  of  praise,  ascrib- 
ing the  victory  to  the  Lord,  and  indicating,  in  the 
words  of  the  text,  that  the  war  shall  be  memo- 
rable. 

They  who  have  escaped  the  noise  of  the  archers, 
the  whistling  of  their  arrows,  shall  gather  at  the 
places  of  familiar  resort  and  rehearse  the  right- 
eous and  beneficial  acts  of  the  Lord  towards  his 
people,  and  they  shall  go  down  to  the  gates,  in  and 
out  of  the  land,  without  embargo  or  hindrance  of 
any  sort. 

It  is  man's  prerogative  alone,  as  head  of  the 
animal  creation,  to  register  and  rehearse  the  deeds 
of  his  Maker.  Brute  creatures  behold  events,  but 
they  behold  them  as  facts  not  as  phenomena,  that 
witness  to  a  power  behind,  and  within,  and  above. 


Another  and  yet  lii^luM*  attribute  of  man  is.  thai  he 
can  sort  these  facts  into  a  system  and  a  sequence; 
can  develope  a  design  in  the  deeds  of  his  Maker; 
can  prove  a  plan  in  His  providence,  and  hear  wit- 
ness to  a  wisdom  in  all  the  ways  of  God  as  lie 
traverses  His  world  to  and  fro:  and  so  man  can 
lay  his  intellect  alongside  of  God's  mind. 

And  a  third  and  superlative  faculty  of  man  is, 
that  what  his  mind  thus  perceives  his  heart  and 
soul  appreciates  and  adores.  He  is  mute  with 
admiration.  He  thrills  with  reverence.  He  is  rapt 
and  possessed  with  love.  He  rises  to  his  feet  and 
shouts  his  exulting  gratitude,  and  thus  his  heart 
and  soul  are  side  by  side  w  ith  God's  heart.  They 
pulse  together.    The  sympathy  makes  them  one. 

This  attribute  of  man  is  moral  not  mental,  higher 
and  diviner  than  mind,  for  mind  is  a  mechanism  ; 
but  the  moral  is  a  character  and  a  state  of  being. 
This  makes  man  kin  to  the  angels  even  while  he  is 
first  cousin  to  the  brutes.  It  proves  him  capable 
of  Heaven  even  while  he  crawls  and  gropes  in  the 
dust  and  dirt  of  the  earth. 

Thanksgiving,  therefore,  exercises  and  gives 
play  to  man's  whole  triplet  of  powers — to  rehearse 
God's  deeds — to  read  and  recognize  their  righteous 
purpose,  and  to  praise  and  rejoice  over  them  be- 
cause they  are  righteous,  and  because  they  are 
His. 

For  this  we  are  come  together  to-day,  to  praise 


7 


God  for  his  righteous  and  kindly  providences  to- 
wards us.  And  not  towards  you  and  me  alone,  but 
to  the  whole  legitimate  nation. 

Even  now  in  this  forenoon  ten  thousand  voices 
are  rehearsing,  as  mine  is,  the  righteous  acts  of  the 
Lord;  and  a  hundred  times  ten  thousand  are 
sounding  forth  His  praises,  as  you  have  done  in 
psalm,  and  chant,  and  anthem,  and  hallelujah. 
How  comes  it  ?  The  nation's  chief  invites  the 
nation  to  a  service  of  solemn  and  holy  praise,  and 
the  nation  with  one  and  glad  consent  join  in  jubi- 
late. But  for  what  ?  Is  not  the  nation  in 
mourning?  Is  it  not  whirling  round  and  round  in  the 
maelstrom  of  civil  war,  that  threatens  to  engulph 
it  bodily  and  forever  ?  Are  we  not  struggling  in 
the  stern  sad  strife  of  fratricide  ?  Is  not  the  land 
stained  red  every  where  and  soaked  with  blood  ? 
May  you  not  almost  say :  "  There  is  not  a  house 
where  there  is  not  one  dead."  Do  you  not  meet 
maimed  and  useless  men  at  every  corner  ?  Have 
we  rot  given  the  best  blood  and  the  best  talent  in 
sacrifice  to  Moloch — men  of  birth,'  of  culture,  and 
highest  moral  worth.  Are  not  whole  households 
draped  in  black  with  their  hearts  broken.  And 
can  you  then  give  thanks?  Can  you  change  all 
these  signs  of  woe  into  evidences  of  blessing  ?  Can 
you  distil  bitter  tears  into  sweet  joys  ?  Can 
you  coin  golden  gratitude  out  of  the  dust  and 
ashes  of  our  dead  ? — or  turn  the  quiver  of  agonized 


8 


nerves  and  muscles  into  the  thrill  of  ecstacy.  From 
all  this  minor  key  of  manifold  mourning  that 
creeps  in  ten  thousand  dirges  over  the  land,  can 
you  combine  a  chorus  of  praise  and  rejoicing? 
Thanksgiving  in  the  midst  of  a  home  war  ;  is  it  not 
absurd  ? 

These  questions  seem  to  be  pertinent,  and  from 
one  point  of  view,  forcible,  if  not  convincing.  We 
must  admit  the  many  wrecks  of  health,  wealth  and 
peace ;  the  desolations  of  home  and  heart;  the  failure 
of  plans,  prospects  and  hopes,  and  above  all,  the 
bloody  cost  of  the  war — paid  in  wounds  and  death, 
by  the  thousands,  who  have  gone  forth  to  the  tight. 
I  would  not  tone  down  the  picture  by  a  single  shade. 
Foreground,  middle,  distance  and  perspective,  I 
would  bring  them  all  under  one  stream  of  bright 
light,  and  in  that  light  1  would  group  the  classes  of 
sufferers  at  once,  and  invoke  your  keen  compassion, 
your  sympathy,  your  tears,  your  help.  As  we  gaze 
on  the  picture  we  witness  the  shock  of  battalions  ; 
the  wild  mixture  of  warring  men,  piercing,  and 
hacking,  and  cleaving  each  other  to  the  ground  ; 
the  sweep  of  cannon  shot,  laying  the  columns  low, 
as  if  by  a  huge  besom ;  ghastly  wounds,  gushing 
blood,  fractured  limbs,  explicable  and  inexplicable ; 
we  see  and  wonder  at  the  placid  smile  of  him  who 
died  in  an  instant  from  a  gun  shot,  as  his  frame 
lies  easily  on  the  turf  where  he  fell ;  and  we  see, 
with  no  less  wonder,  the  writhings  and  grimaces  of 


0 


agony  of  those  who  could  not  die,  doomed  to  carry 
about  a  life  too  strong  for  wounds,  though  not  too 
strong  for  woe.  We  see  the  field  when  the  battle  is 
over,  when  the  hosts  are  gone,  and  the  fruits  of  war 
are  ripe  to  rottenness  ;  and  then  our  natures  are 
overpowered  by  the  complication  of  feeling;  of  pity, 
which  draws  us  on,  and  honor,  which  revolts  and 
repels  us,  and  we  shut  our  eyes  and  wave  the  dark 
vision  away.  And,  in  another  part  of  the  picture, 
we  seem  to  stand  among  the  prisoners  of  war, 
packed  together  in  starvation  and  filth  ;  dying  of 
unmedicated  wounds,  or  by  the  slow  torture  of 
hunger  and  cold.  And  as  we  draw  back  our  gaze 
to  the  foreground  that  is  nearest  to  us,  we  count  for 
every  single  sufferer  on  the  field  or  in  the  prison,  a 
sympathizing  group,  of  which  he  was  once  the 
centre,  and  in  whom  his  agony  is  multiplied  over 
and  over.  And  this  is  but  a  fraction  of  the  woe. 
I  presume  that  war  can  have  no  adequate  picture. 
It  can  tell  its  own  story  only  to  witnessing  eyes 
and  ears  upon  the  spot,  and  they  can  never  cata- 
logue its  horrors,  for  no  eye  and  ear  can  know  the 
cruelties  that  are  going  on  every  where  at  once, 
and  no  heart  could  sustain  itself  against  the  crush- 
ing accumulation  if  all  the  agonies  were  massed 
into  one  view.  Say  "  War"  and  you  have  pro- 
nounced a  word  whose  one  syllable  contains  all 
animal  sorrow  concentrated.  Prefix  the  adjective 
and  call  it  '*  Civil  War"  and  you  add  a  social  and  a 


10 


moral  element  to  the  agony  which  makes  it  three- 
fold, and  leaves  no  other  woe  in  the  world  to  be 
compared  to  it. 

Yet,  strange  to  say,  it  has  its  compensation  and 
redress.  Even  though  it  be  the  mother  and  the 
child  of  sin,  God  lias  many  a  time  overruled  its 
wrathful  mission,  to  evoke  all  the  better  powers  of 
humanity;  to  stir  up  slumbering  energies  of  mind 
and  heart,  in  persons  and  in  nations;  to  hew  the 
pathway  of  civilization,  and  to  open  the  yei  brighter 
path  of  grace  and  theGospel.  The  savagery  of  fight 
is  sure  to  give  place  at  las!  to  the  gentlenesses  of  a 
better  humanity.  The  reaction  from  the  Avarlike  is 
always  towards  the  womanly  and  the  tender,  be- 
cause the  overworked  passions  collapse  from  sheer 
necessity  of  nature,  and  in  their  sleep  and  inanition 
they  can  only  dream  of  the  horrors  which  they  have 
not  strength  enough  to  re-produce,  and  they  shudder 
as  they  dream,  and  take  on  compunction.  And  at 
this  first  sign  of  sensibility  the  kindly  sentiments 
raise  their  modest  lips  to  the  ears  of  the  soul,  and 
whisper  "  love,  fraternity,  forgiveness,  peace,"  and 
when  the  nature  wakes  it  is  warlike  no  more.  When 
the  ugly  passions  have  been  thus  quenched  and 
drowned  in  blood,  war  leaves  for  its  generation  a 
surer  heritage  of  peace,  security  and  social  advance- 
ment, through  the  energies,  moral  and  mental,  that 
it  waked  into  such  forceful  play.  There  is  blood 
upon  the  arena ;  but  it  is  the  price  that  manhood 


11 


paid  for  a  higher  style  of  manhood.  It  was  a 
strenuous  leap  of  society  for  the  next  foothold  of 
civilization.  It  was  the  last  and  critical  struggle 
of  a  people  for  the  stability  of  the  government  and 
the  unity  of  the  nation,  in  which  is  garnered  up 
all  possible  prosperity,  through  an  indefinite  and 
progressive  future,  and  when  that  last  warlike 
struggle  is  successfully  achieved,-  the  patriot  may 
die  with  the  prayer  on  his  lips,  that  is  both  a  prayer 
and  a  prophecy :  "  My  country,  be  thou  perpetual 
as  the  ages." 

If  such,  then,  be  our  war,  as  who  can  doubt  it  is, 
surely  we  are  not  without  a  theme  for  thanksgiving, 
that  we  are  permitted  to  look  through  the  dark  vista 
out  upon  an  expanse  of  serene  light  and  beauty. 
And  we  may  do  more  than  this,  we  may  recognize 
God's  sovereignty  in  this  war  which  he  has  permitted 
to  be  waged  against  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation. 
Although  conceived  and  born  in  selfishness  and 
pride,  he  has  not  so  forfeited  or  foregone  his  claim 
of  supremacy  as  to  leave  the  war  without  his  watch 
and  supervision.  He  has  purposes  of  his  own 
divine  pleasure  to  be  worked  out  through  it,  and  he 
will  win  praise  even  through  such  wrath  of  man  as 
caused  this  fratricidal  strife.  Fratricidal  did  I  call 
it  ?  It  is  worse.  It  wears  the  black  unnaturalness 
of  a  matricide.  For  they  who  fired  the  first  shotted 
gun  in  this  embroilment  aimed  at  the  heart  and  life 
of  the  most  benign  of  mothers,  and  would  have  slain 


12 


her  if  they  could,  even  as  she  lay  asleep,  reposing 
in  fond  confidence  in  her  children.  Could  thai 
Divine  power,  who,  when  he  established  civil 
government  among  men,  made  patriotism  and  piety, 
to  be  identical  ?  could  he  look  with  indifference,  look 

without  a  frown  upon  a  rebellion  that  wore  such  ;i 

maniac  look  of  hate  to  a  nation  and  a  government 
which  lie  had  nursed  and  fostered,  and  led  with 
his  own  right  hand?  He  could  n<»t.  and  he  has 
not  :  and  I  ask  you  to  review  with  me  the  way-  in 
which  He  has  shown  displeasure  with  rebellion. 
Without  arrogating  any  merit  of  prowess  to  our- 
selves, or  rejoicing  for  our  own  peculiar  skill,  let 
us  see  how  God  has  bent  back  the  point  of  the 
rebellion  to  pierce  its  own  bosom,  and  dealt  with 
the  plans  of  our  enemies,  and  disappointed  them 
every  one. 

Eecall  the  high  and  boastful  pretensions  with 
which  this  Avar  was  plotted  and  begun,  and  then 
mark  how  an  overruling  power  has,  by  a  single 
touch,  caused  them,  one  by  one,  to  wilt  and  shrink 
away,  like  some  succulent  shoot,  made  up  and 
swollen  with  sap,  which,  when  crushed  between 
the  thumb  and  finger,  leaks  out  its  moisture,  and 
leaves  not  fibre  enough  for  a  skeleton,  or  a  dried 
specimen,  or  a  fossil. 

The  first  influence  that  led  the  rebellion  to  its 
birth,  was  the  conviction,  which  was  universal  at 
the  South,  that  the  men  of  the  Northern  States 


13 


would  not  and  could  not  light.  It  was  a  very 
natural  state  of  mind  for  a  people  who,  themselves 
not  largely  educated,  knew  us  only  at  a  distance ; 
a  people  who,  trained  and  grown  up  in  the  indo- 
lence of  absolute  power,  despised  the  labor  and 
activity  which  lay  at  the  foundation  of  our  mechani- 
cal, manufacturing,  commercial,  and  educational 
success.  Deeming  us  ignoble,  they  supposed  us 
incapable  of  sentiment,  of  high  mindedness,  and  of 
courage.  Accustomed  to  act  from  whim,  from  pas- 
sion, or  from  will,  and  so  to  act  vehemently,  they 
had  no  conception  of  &  principle  as  supreme  above 
impulse,  and  holding  the  passions  under  curb;  of 
courage,  that  acted  only  when  it  was  right  and 
dutiful ;  of  manliness,  that  was  noble  and,  at  the 
same  time,  cool. 

And  so  in  their  calculations  of  relative  force, 
they  had  fixed  it  as  an  axiom,  that  every  Southern 
warrior  bore  a  quintriple  superiority  to  every  Nor- 
therner. They  have  discovered  their  mistake. 
They  have  learned  that  the  valor  which  is  guided 
by  principle  is  worth  twofold  the  courage  of  pas- 
sion. It  has  that  immense  repelling  power  which 
consists  in  simply  standing  still  and  saying  :  "  You 
shall  not."  It  may  be  as  negative  and  stolid  as  a 
granite  rock — but  the  rock  has  the  strength  of  cen- 
turies packed  into  it ;  and  when  the  rushing  assault 
comes,  alas !  for  the  assailant.  His  very  vehe- 
mence is  his  destruction.    His  momentum  mea- 


14 


suits  his  mischief,  Waterloo  was  a  battle  of  South 
and  North.  The  victory  was  the  power  of  a  simple 
negative.  Such  was  Corinth  and  Mich  was  Gettys- 
burgh. 

But  tlie  courage  of  principle  is  not  alone  the 
power  to  stand.  Being  passionless  it  is  pru- 
dent^ and  as  the  highest  prudence  consist-  some- 
times in  quick  and  vivid  action,  so,  on  occasion, 
it  is  no  less  hold  in  assault  than  brave  in  resist- 
ance, and  plucks  victory  out  of  death's  very  jaws, 
and  such  was  Donelson  and  Fori  Henry. 

The  South  had  forgotten  the  opinion  of  Washing- 
ton, thai  in  a  conflict  between  them  and  the  North, 

though  they  might  win  the  early  light  the  quality 
of  endurance^  would  give  the  final  victory  to  us. 
Out  of  this  prolific  misconception  of  character 
sprang  the  first  act  of  rebellion.  Had  they  known 
us  as  well  then  as  now,  it  is  safe  to  say,  the  gun- 
ner at  Charleston  would  have  plunged  his  port  fire 
into  the  sea. 

There  was  another  misconception  that  lay  by  the 
side  of  this  like  a  twTin-brother,  rocked  in  the  same 
cradle.  It  was  the  persuasion  that  a  predomina- 
ting portion  of  the  North  would  coalesce  and  act 
with  the  South.  Even  if  they  had  no  direct  assu- 
rance of  this,  there  was  enough  in  the  political  his- 
tory of  the  country  to  suggest  the  thought.  In  the 
Caucus,  in  the  Congress,  in  the  Cabinet,  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  dictate  and  always  with  power. 


15 

They  spake  and  it  was  done.  They  wished  and  we 
were  willing.  They  planned,  we  executed.  They 
sketched  the  programme  of  the  drama,  and  the 
obliging  and  many-sided  North  played  every  part 
from  hero  down  to  harlequin.  But  this  was  in 
piping  times  of  peace  and  party,  and  the  dramatis 
persons  were  only  politicians.  They  represented 
Northern  character  to  the  lordly  patrons  of  the 
scene,  and  how  should  the  supercilious  natures 
who  knew  us  only  in  this  scenic  character  of  easy 
subserviency,  ever  dream  of  the  deep  and  solemn 
soberness  with  which  the  Northern  conscience  held 
to  its  patriotism  and  its  loyalty,  as  a  drowning 
wife  clings  to  her  husband's  waist,  her  last  and 
only  hope  of  life.  They  feel  now  how  cruel  their 
mistake  has  been  ;  and  we,  who  are  nearer  to  it, 
know  how  complete  it  was.  We  know  that  the 
party  sympathy  they  leaned  upon  is  not  only  a 
broken  reed  but  a  reed  split  in  twain  from  top  to 
bottom.  We  know  how  the  grand  voice  of  the 
people  which,  when  it  is  thoughtful  and  well 
advised,  is  only  second  in  its  magnificent  autho- 
rity to  the  voice  of  God,  has  pronounced  upon  that 
sympathy;  has  pronounced  that  fellowship  with 
rebellion  is  treason  to  the  nation  ;  and  we  know 
by  the  prophetic  light  of  history  that  the  politician 
who,  in  a  time  of  his  country's  war,  is  in  sympathy 
with  her  foes,  seals  in  advance  the  doom  of  his 
own  discomfiture.    A  dignified  retirement  into  an 


16 


unnoticeable  privaey  is  henceforward  his  best  suc- 
cess. With  his  coronej  onjewelled  and  lustreless, 
liis  choices!  hope  musl  be,  that  the  world  may 
please  to  forget  him. 

A  third  mistake  which  buttressed  this  bold  re- 
bellion, was  the  persuasion  on  the  pari  of  the 
South  thai  their  great  product,  cotton,  was  so  in- 
dispensable to  the  manufacturing  nations  of  Europe, 

thai  rather  than  lose  it.  they  would  make  common 

cause  with  the  rebellion  and  ensure  its  success 
To  their  minds  the  rqyal  ships  of  state  in  Europe 
had  all casl  their  anchors  in  South  Carolina:  they 
wore  hold  to  their  moorings  by  the  one  stout  cable 
of  cotton,  and  if  this  were  stranded  and  broken* 
the  empires  would  drift  disastrously  upon  a  lee 
shore.  The  very  poor  would  starve  for  want  of 
labor  in  cotton,  the  middle  classes  would  sympa- 
thize and  rebel  ;  the  aristocracy,  instinctively  hos- 
tile to  our  republic,  would  coalesce.  The  govern- 
ments under  such  stress  would  be  compelled  into 
a  Southern  alliance,  and  under  this  partnership  of 
empires,  the  success  of  the  rebellion  would  be  easy 
and  complete.  All  this  was  to  be  accomplished 
by  virtue  of  that  one  self-same  vegetable,  cotton, 
which  was  deemed  so  indispensable  to  the  world, 
that  it  might  almost  seem  to  be  the  necessary 
clothing  of  the  universal  humanity,  the  raw  material 
of  the  human  cuticle,  so  that  without  it  the  race 
would  be  not  only  naked  but  skinless. 


17 


They  have  now  learned — and  we  are  sharers  in 
the  lesson — the  wonderful  recuperative  powers  of 
human  nature,  among  communities  as  well  as  with 
individuals.  We  have  seen  the  elasticity  with 
which  men  can  accommodate  themselves  to  strange 
and  hard  conditions,  discover  new  resources,  and 
supplement  their  wants  with  fresh  and  varying 
substitutes. 

One  of  the  most  disastrous  results  of  this  mistake 
to  the  South  itself  is,  that  necessity  has  ploughed 
up  new  cotton  fields  in  various  parts  of  the  world : 
Egypt  supplants  the  Sea  Islands,  Central  America 
promises  to  be  a  paradise  of  cotton,  and  the  rich 
monopoly  is  broken  up  forever.  There  have  been 
times,  indeed,  when  the  expectation  of  foreign  in- 
terference seemed  probable  enough,  and  specially 
from  two  of  the  leading  powers  of  Europe.  To  one 
of  these  nations  we  bear  a  blood  relationship,  and 
it  is  said,  a  strong  family  likeness.  Yet  our  com- 
mon character  is  worked  out  on  the  two  sides  of 
the  Atlantic  into  marked  differences. 

Planted  in  the  midst  of  a  large  continent,  with  a 
boundless  horizon  of  enterprise  and  an  indefinite 
line  of  progress,  the  Saxon  nature  has  here  run  out 
perhaps  into  exaggeration,  like  a  countenance  re- 
flected from  a  convex  mirror.  While  cabined  in 
the  little  isle  across  the  water,  it  has  become  in- 
sular in  all  respects  ;  its  capacities  have  lost  much 
of  their  native  breadth  and  its  peculiarities  have 


IS 


grown  more  and  more  minute,  like  the  same  counte- 
nance seen  in  the  converging  power  of  a  concave 
glass. 

The  victim  of  prescription,  and  precedent,  and 
concrete  forms  of  life,  the  Anglican  mind  stretches 
itself  rarely  and  reluctantly  to  the  breath  of  a  gen- 
eral principle,  cither  in  murals,  philosophy,  politics 
or  law;  and  so  upon  the  transatlantic  lace  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  nature,  we  see  the  wrinkles  of  caste 
and  class,  and  other  practical  prejudices  furrowed 
deep  in  the  leathern  skin  of  its  hopeless  old  age, 
and  the  character  is  dull,  partial,  self-willed  and 
self-satislied  to  supercilious  and  snarling  excess. 

With  such  differences  of  development  between 
us,  it  is  natural  that  while  our  oneness  of  blood 
qualities  us  to  analyze  the  Saxon  character,  the 
tribal  feeling  should  make  us  more  sorely  apt  to 
criticise  its  blemishes.  If  we  feel  obliged  to  admit 
the  ingrain  excellence  of  England,  and  respect  her 
fundamental  honesty  and  her  bluff  boldness,  we 
admire  only  with  a  qualification ;  her  beauty  is  but 
"freckled  fair." 

We  rank  her  as  the  greatest  of  the  nations,  yet 
repel  her  as  the  most  disagreeable  of  all  the 
peoples  of  the  earth.  We  disaffect  the  triple  com- 
pound of  nobility,  commons  and  paupers  that  forms 
the  nation,  even  though  we  tolerate  gallantly  and 
lovingly  the  crown  that  beams  with  the  virtues  of 
Victoria. 


19 


A  nobility,  boastful  of  its  blood,  none  the  less 
because  it  bears  the  bar  sinister,  a  commercial 
Commons  that  carries  its  conscience  in  its  hand, 
but  its  hand  always  in  the  pocket,  graduating 
goodness  by  the  scale  of  the  counting-house,  and 
regulating  right  by  the  balances  of  the  ledger, 
will  have  none  but  marketable  virtues ;  and  a 
whole  people,  from  top  to  bottom,  with  its  man- 
liness fettered  by  the  taught  reverence  for  mere 
rank:  this  was  the  nation  shop-keeping,  and 
aristocratic,  too,  that  turned  away  from  us  and 
listened  with  a  grim  smile  to  the  golden  promises 
of  the  patrician  South.  For  we  were  England's 
rivals  in  shop-keeping — this  was  the  obvious 
offence.  The  backflow  of  our  democracy  across  the 
Atlantic  had  begun  to  undermine  portions  of  her 
class  prerogative,  and  this  was  an  added  grudge. 

Perhaps  the  old  pique  of  being  worsted  in  two 
wars  may  have  been  a  third,  and  the  three  com- 
bined were  motive  enough  for  an  effort  to  cripple 
and  disjoin  the  obnoxious  Republic. 

True,  therefore,  to  her  instincts  of  profit,  preju- 
dice and  pride,  yet  untrue  utterly  to  her  traditions 
of  philanthropy  and  moral  policy,  England  had 
well-nigh  committed  herself  to  the  Southern  alli- 
ance for  better  or  worse. 

But  in  good  season  she  discovered  that  the  rebel 
cause  was  tottering,  and  her  politic  conscientious- 
ness receiving  this  new  light,  she  began  to  revise 


some  of  her  equivocal  admissions  and  initiated  a 
sort  of  tardy  justice  to  the  United  States.  Her 
leading  newspapers  spoke  out  a  half-way  reclaimer 
of  their  former  arguments — spoke  more  absolutely 
for  complete  neutrality,  and  always  cupped  their 
logic  with  the  potent  suggestion  of  self-interest, 
that  their  committft]  to  the  Southern  cause  might 
furnish  precedents  which  would  be  found  by-and- 
bye  to  be  not  wrong,  not  unlawful,  not  unfriendly, 
but  simply  reactionary  and  troublesome.  This 
turned  the  scale  of  conscience  and  of  favoritism, 
and  the  South  saw  itself  crippled  of  its  best  hope. 

But  one  other  hope  was  left.  There  was,  a  nation, 
we  can  hardly  call  it,  and  still  less  can  we  call  it  a 
people  in  any  political  sense  of  thai  word — but 
there  was  another  power  interested,  no  less  than 
England,  in  favor  of  cotton  and  against  democracy. 
This  power  invested  in  one  despotic  person,  keen, 
ambitious,  unscrupulous,  whose  antecedents  make 
up  a  biography  that  in  some  other  century  than 
the  nineteenth  would  have  suited  a  Borgia  or  a 
Cataline — this  power,  in  its  own  left-handed  way, 
gave  the  rebellion  hope.  But  it  was  a  short-lived 
consolation.  The  bow  being  strung  too  far,  the 
forbearance  of  the  French  people  having  run  to  the 
length  of  its  tether — the  exchequer  giving  signs  of 
collapse — the  jealousy  of  the  European  powers 
being  stirred,  and  the  grand  demonstration  stood 
still  where  it  was.     The  rebel  hopes  of  friends 


21 


abroad  were  changed  to  disgust,  and  the  rebel 
cause  turned  its  back  upon  Europe,  in  doing  so 
faced  its  foes  at  home,  in  whose  countenance  it 
read  no  hope  but  in  submission  and  loyal ty.  And 
thus  another  prime  delusion  of  the  rebel  mind  col- 
lapsed in  disappointment. 

Again,  the  rebellion  was  nursed  by  an  added 
hope,  viz.,  that  the  North,  deprived  of  the  Southern 
market,  would  be  bankrupted  and  ruined  ;  grass 
would  grow  in  our  streets,  labor  would  be  worth- 
less, gaunt  famine  would  watch  at  the  doors  of  the 
poor ;  hungry  mobs  would  march  and  parade  in  our 
streets  with  the  watch-words  on  their  banners  of 
"  bread  or  blood." 

We  can  hardly  believe  it  now,  amidst  the  whirl 
and  rush  of  all  the  activities  of  commerce,  with  a 
freshet  of  prosperity  filling  the  channels  of  busi- 
ness and  overflowing  in  munificent  and  magnificent 
charities ;  with  an  increase  of  taxation  that  would 
have  scared  us  once,  met  and  paid  easily  and 
cheerfully ;  with  an  abundant  supply  of  life's  sup- 
ports and  life's  elegancies,  and  a  greater  abundance 
of  means  to  procure  them;  with  sure  evidences 
that  this  is  not  inflation  and  falsity,  but  a  positive 
increase  of  material  wealth — with  all  this  around 
us,  we  can  hardly  conceive  that  the  death-dealing 
prophecies  of  the  South  were  ever  seriously  uttered 
or  honestly  believed. 

But  they  did  believe  it,  and  believe  it  still,  until 


22 


some  truant  Southron,  trusting  in  our  tolerance, 
ventures  among  as  for  a  refuge  from  his  trouble- 
some tribes,  and  sees  with  his  amazed  eyes  what 
he  would  never  else  have  believed,  that  we  are 
neither  perished  nor  perishing.  We  may  not  be 
able  to  explain  it  thoroughly  to  ourselves,  for  it  is 
one  of  those  strange  phenomena  in  political  econo- 
my which  prove  it  to  be  the  most  perplexed  of  any- 
thing that  was  ever  called  a  science. 

Yet  so  it  is,  a  magnificent  verity  and  a  magnifi- 
cent refutation  of  another  great  mistake  of  the  re- 
bellion. 

I  name  one  more  delusion,  the  most  fatal  and 
hopeless  of  all  on  which  this  melancholy  cause 
leaned  its  weight  It  was  fondly  believed  that 
the  system  of  slavery  would  be  secured  beyond  all 
touch  and  meddling  from  the  officious  North  hence- 
forward. For  this  the  rebellion  was  plotted.  The 
Confederacy  was  organized  with  slavery  for  its 
corner-stone.  It  was  the  grand  peculiarity  which 
was  to  signalize  it  above  all  other  political  systems 
— inaugurate  a  new  era  in  government,  and  realize 
the  beau  ideal  of  the  social  state. 

The  Confederacy  was  to  perpetuate  the  constant 
distinction  between  lord  and  serf — between  power 
and  submission. 

I  know  no  example  of  the  blinding  effect  of 
passion  on  the  intellect,  or  of  the  perversion  of 
the  conscience  by  pride,  than  such  a  purpose  de- 


23 


liberately  uttered  in  a  theory  of  government.  Can 
it  be  that  thinking  men  are  laying  their  strength 
together  to  roll  back  the  wheels  of  time — to  restore 
a  system  which  had  its  birth  in  barbarism,  and  has 
been  dying  of  civilization,  ever  since  civilization 
began  to  bless  the  race  ?  Can  it  be  that  while 
they  rejoice  in  the  title  of  "  the  chivalry,1'  which 
belongs  to  the  condition  of  lordship  and  serfdom, 
they  are  really  willing  to  accept  the  character  which 
that  title  originally  and  truly  denoted  ?  Would  they 
be  as  knights  and  barons  of  the  middle  ages,  living  in 
their  plantation  castles,  with  crowds  of  banded  re- 
tainers to  execute  their  will,  with  a  code  of  principles 
in  which  mere  arbitrary  power  was  first  and  last  and 
midst — a  code  which  exalted  the  sentimental  graces 
and  ignored  the  solid  virtues  of  life,  which  frowned 
upon  an  insult  but  warranted  an  injustice,  which 
bade  a  man  be  watchful  for  his  honor,  though  be- 
reft of  honesty,  which  taught  him  to  be  gallant, 
and  permitted  him  to  be  unchaste,  to  be  polished 
in  manner  and  rotten  in  conscience,  generous  yet 
grasping,  hospitable,  yet  cruel  at  the  pleasure  of 
his  passions,  courtly  in  the  saloon  and  savage  in 
the  court-yard  ?  Is  this  the  character  that  they 
would  emulate  and  re-produce  in  this  noonlight  of 
civilization  and  the  Gospel  ? 

It  would  be  difficult  to  credit  it  but  for  the  fierce 
pertinacity  with  which  they  claim  it,  and  their 
practical  illustration  of  the  character  in  the  uncon- 


24 


scientious  means  by  which  some  of  the  proudest  of 
them  procured  the  rebellion  —  means  involving 
breaches  of  trust,  violations  of  truth,  and  other 
huge  dishonesties,  that  entitle  them  to  take  rank 
with  any  of  the  robber  knights  who  stood  foremost 
in  the  semi-barbarous  chivalry  of  the  middle  ages. 
It  is  strange,  too,  thai  thinking  men  with  an  open 
Gospel  should  have  dared  to  re-attirm  a  system  of 
bondage  which  stands  in  essential  antagonism  to 
the  spirit  and  power  of  Christianity. 

For  no  matter  what  defences  of  slavery  may  be 
extorted  l>\  elaborate  inferences  from  the  Bible, 
there  is  one  simple  and  indisputable  principle  in 
the  code  of  Jesus  ( !hrist,  which  condenses  the  argu- 
ment and  the  refutation  into  the  briefest  form: 
k>  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you, 
do  ye  even  so  unto  them,  for  this  is  the  law  and 
the  prophets."  It  is  simple,  it  is  comprehensive, 
it  is  universal.  It  liquidates  all  sophistry,  and  es- 
capes all  entanglement.  It  determines  involuntary 
servitude  to  be  wrong,  unless  every  master  is  will- 
ing to  exchange  places  with  his  slave.  "  Whatso- 
ever ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them.*'  There  is  but  one  escape  from 
the  searching  exaction,  and  that  is  to  deny  that 
the  slave  is  a  man.  How  then  could  such  a  system 
make  head  against  the  spirit  of  such  a  Gospel. 

It  was  a  huge  mistake,  demonstrated  to  be  such 
by  the  overruling  power,  that  has  already  turned 


25 


slavery  into  the  heaviest  burden  the  rebellion  has 
to  bear.  Forty  thousand  strong,  the  emancipated 
slaves  have  turned  their  arms  against  their  masters, 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  strong,  the  unemanci- 
pated,  have  been  driven  into  the  corner  States, 
where  the  diminished  form  of  the  rebellion  now 
crouches,  and  there  like  a  plague  of  locusts,  they 
overwhelm  the  land  with  a  hungry  and  non-pro- 
ducing population. 

Who  can  fail  to  foresee  the  issue  of  this  great 
problem  of  slavery  to  the'  Confederacy  itself? 
Who  can  help  seeing  that  its  corner-stone  was  laid 
on  sand,  that  the  noisy  proclamation  was  a  blatant 
falsehood,  and  the  projected  system  a  stupendous 
mistake  ? 

We  have  now  run  through  the  catalogue  of  capi- 
tal errors  out  of  which  the  rebellion  was  engen- 
dered. Each  one  of  them  has  been  evaporated  or 
exploded,  till  there  remains  not  a  tangible  shred  of 
any.  It  is  not  our  skill  or  prowess  that  has  pro- 
duced this  issue.  It  is  the  supremacy  of  that 
guiding  power  that  holds  the  hearts  of  princes  in 
his  hand,  that  makes  the  diviners  mad,  and  orders 
all  things  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  will.  It  is 
God  moving  in  the  earth,  to  foil  the  rebellion  with 
its  own  weapons,  and  turn  its  strength  to  weakness. 
And  although  it  is  only  a  refusal  of  power,  and  not 
a  positive  conquest,  that  we  have  recited.  Yet 
God's  refusal  is  a  conquest.  To  baulk  the  rebel- 
4 


26 


lion,  is  to  destroy  it,  for  it  may  say  with  Shylock  : 
"Ton  take  away  my  life  when  you  do  take  the 
means  whereby  I  live." 

Let  us  praise  and  give  thanks  to  Him  therefore, 
for  his  simple,  grand  and  awful  negative.  Lei  us 
bow  down  and  adore  Jlim.  And  then  lot  us  thank 
Him  for  those  positive  successes  in  which  though 
we  were  the  actors,  yet  if  He  had  not  gone  forth 
with  our  hosts,  we  had  boon  the  vanquished  too. 

Recall  the  splendid  victories  of  the  year.  Listen 
to  the  booming  cannon  that  proclaims  to-day.  a  new 
victory  to  our  arms,  and  fresh  disaster  to  the  bad 
cause.  These  successes  have  at  last  pent  in  the 
active  rebellion  to  five  States  —  have  tamed  its 
confidence,  cut  off  it-  supplies,  and  reduced  it  to  a 
condition  in  which  its  courage  is  desperation,  and 
its  very  victories,  if  it  achieve  any,  will  be  almost 
as  disastrous  as  defeats.  It  cannot  afford  to  win 
battles  and  live,  and  surely  it  cannot  afford  to  lose 
them.  In  fact,  it  can  only  afford  to  die.  We  may 
praise  God  therefore,  not  only  with  devout  grati- 
tude but  with  hope. 

We  may  look  forward  to  the  period  of  restored 
unity,  of  ripened  loyalty,  of  a  more  fervent  patriot- 
ism, and  of  universal  freedom.  In  fact,  we  may 
anticipate  a  day  when  the  moral  and  mental  de- 
velopments, and  the  wide  play  of  sympathy  elicit- 
ed by  this  great  struggle,  shall  have  so  exalted  the 
character  of  this  people,  and  joined  the  thirty  mil- 


27 


lion  hearts  into  one  great  national  heart,  that  the 
Republic  shall  be  perpetual — so  strong  and  so 
pure  that  man  cannot,  and  God  will  not  destroy  it. 
Then  will  the  nation  hold  jubilee  again,  and  bless 
the  Almighty  for  the  war  itself. 

In  this  bright  forecast  of  the  future  why  should 
not  the  African  have  his  place  of  hope  and  joy  ? 
Shall  not  he  too  be  lifted  up  by  the  exalting  influ- 
ence of  freedom  to  the  prerogatives  of  a  true  man- 
hood ?  True,  we  hear  it  said,  "  You  cannot  elevate 
him ;  his  nature  wants  capacity  —  wants  the  true 
electricity  of  mental  life."  But  has  the  trial  been 
fairly  made  ?  We  crust  him  over  with  our  con- 
tempt and  prejudice ;  we  wrap  him  up  thickly  in 
all  the  disadvantages  of  ignorance  and  disappoint- 
ment, and  then  when  we  touch  him  with  a  non- 
conductor of  pride,  or  tyranny,  or  selfishness,  if  we 
do  not  see  the  instant  flash,  or  feel  an  answering 
shock,  we  boldly  pronounce  him  to  be  a  non  electric. 
But  unwrap  those  folds  of  ignorance  and  fear,  crack 
off  that  crust  of  contempt  in  which  slavery  has  insu- 
lated him,  let  his  naked  nature  come  into  contact 
with  the  life-restoring  agencies  of  freedom,  and 
then  see  if  he,  for  whom  Christ  died,  does  not  ex- 
hibit enough  of  the  light  and  spiritual  life  of  man- 
hood to  entitle  him  to  a  place  in  the  future  of  our 
Republic  as  a  citizen,  a  man  and  a  brother. 

If  the  war  shall  be  thus  regenerative  —  creating 
four  millions  of  men  out  of  four  millions  of  beasts 


28 


of  burden — then  Ethiopia  may  begin  to  lift  up  her 
hands  to  God  and  herald  the  millenium  of  Christ. 

If,  while  I  speak  thus,  there  comes  before  any  of 

you  the  image  of  bereaved  households,  and  the 
thoughts  of  bleeding  hearts,  and  of  the  fresh-made 
graves  of  the  slain  in  war,  yet  even  these  arc  not 
incompatible  with  thanksgiving.  Often  does  grati- 
tude grow  out  of  the  grave.  Its  roots  dive  down 
into  the  mould  of  the  Loved  dead,  hem,  or  martyr, 
and  hug,  and  kiss,  and  feed  upon  the  very  bones  of 
their  decay,  and  so  gather  nutriment  for  the  sweel 
blossoms  of  remembrance,  and  the  mellow  fruits  of 
thanksgiving  and  praise.  So  let  it  be  with  us. 
Honored  is  that  father  who  can  to-day  name  a 
martyred  hero  in  the  person  of  bis  son.  Blessed 
is  that  mother  who  has  given  the  nursling  of  her 
bosom  to  save  the  life  of  our  common  mother  from 
shame  and  death. 

And  now  need  I  add  a  word  to  remind  you  of 
those  for  whom  your  charities  are  asked  to-day — 
the  wounded  and  imprisoned  soldiers,  forced  to 
share  in  rebel  destitution,  and  so  almost  starving 
with  the  leavings  of  rebel  poverty  ? 

The  living  are  worse  off  than  the  dead.  While 
you  remember  these  with  gratitude,  remember  the 
others  with  your  generous  pity. 


